Sarah Palin so completely traumatized Weather Undergrounder Bill Ayers in 2008, he is still talking about the former vice-presidential candidate seven years later. In a March 18 Publishers' Weekly interview at Hyde Park's Seminary Co-op bookstore, Ayers injected Mrs. Palin into the conversation. It seems he still can't forget a governor from Alaska who dared to expose his fellow traveler at a private fundraiser on October 4, 2008 in Englewood, Colorado:. VP Candidate Sarah Palin, 2008: Our opponent, though, is someone who sees America, it seems, as being so imperfect, imperfect enough that he’s palling around with terrorists who would...

The Islamic War, Martin Archer, 2014The novel begins with a terror attack on a residential area in Israel, resulting in multiple causalities. It may, or may not, have involved members of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard. Menachem Begin is the Israeli Prime Minister and Ariel Sharon is the Defense Minister. The story begins immediately after the (postponed?) end of the Iran - Iraq war in 1988. A massive armor, infantry, artillery and air attack on Israeli positions in the Golan follows the terrorist attack. The Israelis are outnumbered and suffer many thousands of casualties. Israel had anticipated a simultaneous attack via Jordan, so most Israeli tank, infantry and air resources are deployed there, rather than in...

Doing research for a novel. Can anybody tell me, what section of London would the families of merchantmen sailors have lived in during the late 17th century? All I can find on-line is "London." But I've got to believe that they lived relatively close to the docks in areas with specific names. And I suppose officers would live in a different section than that of common sailors.

I mourned the untimely passing of actor Philip Seymour Hoffman for the very personal reason that I hoped he would one day get to play Whittaker Chambers in a film version of Chambers’ 1952 masterwork, Witness. Short, heavy set, permanently rumpled, Hoffman would have made a near perfect Chambers to George Clooney’s Alger Hiss, the smooth, handsome, establishment golden boy. Chambers’ 800-page story of his life and their encounter remains the great political book of the twentieth century. Chambers was a deep thinker, a dazzling writer, and a reluctant participant in the most riveting political drama of the era. No...

"The Last Valley" stars Michael Caine and Omar Sharif, it's set in Germany in the 1640s during the Thirty Years War.I stumbled upon this forgotten masterpiece from 1971 a few days ago when I obtained some old VHS tapes from a friend. Just update the story line 400 years, change it to Christians vs Muslims, give everybody an AK-47, and this may be what the future is going to bring. The movie flopped at the box office for a number of reasons unrelated to its quality. The John Barry soundtrack alone is stunning. "The Last Valley" is now on Youtube...

This question has been bubbling and I don't know enough to resolve it myself. Asking you Smart People to help me flesh this out- or decide if it's a worthless navel gazing exercise. Realizing I'm setting myself for ridicule... here goes.... Re: The quran calling Christians and Jews "People of The Book": The quran was put together before 700 BC. The first Bible was printed in 1450, the Torah 1482. Before that there were papyrus, scrolls, writings - but no "Book". Is the quran actually referring to the "book of life" from both the old and new testament? ..... is...

GRAND RAPIDS, MI -- Family Christian Stores, the nation's largest Christian bookstore and gift chain, has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in hopes of restructuring its debt in the face of declining sales. The Grand Rapids-based chain said it does not expect to close any of its 266 stores in 36 states or layoff any of its 3,100 full-time and part-time employees. "We strive to serve God in all that we do and trust his guidance in all our decisions, especially this very important one," said President and CEO Chuck Bengochea in a news release. "We have carefully and prayerfully...

This is the movie that has exploding heads -- one very prominent who's name you don't use on the same page with 'exploding'. Oh, and a lot of blood and gore. But ... The Kingsman is really well done. Highly recommended for Freepers. I will warn you though, there is one brief comment and one very brief flash of the female backside that marred an otherwise perfect gem of a movie. Those 3 seconds erased the panache that was built up for the first 4/5ths of the movie.

".......For decades now, America's higher education system has poorly served Americans.If you can weld,you can land a job making six-figures tomorrow.If you recently acquired a B.A. in sociology,well, can you tell me how you do that thing where you make the foam on top a latte look like a heart?There's a reason why the lack of a college degree is practically celebrated in Silicon Valley. Mark Zuckerberg,Steve Jobs and Bill Gates are all college dropouts. Peter Thiel says a college "diploma is a dunce hat in disguise" and wants to blow the higher-ed system up entirely. Sixty-three of the people...

"Let me start with the Civil War — I mean this is a president who — we can excuse him for his ignorance of Islamic theology and Islamic history, you know despite his nominal background in Islam as a child. But excuse me, but the abolitionists were Christians, and the United States literally went to war with itself, unlike any other society before, to extirpate the longstanding, thousand year longstanding evil of slavery in virtually every human civilization. It’s just appalling that he doesn’t even grasp that fundamental decency about this country..."

Bill Browder rose from rebellious grandson of the former head of the Communist Party USA, Earl Browder, to the leading foreign capitalist in Russia, as the founder and CEO of the high-flying hedge fund Hermitage Capital Management. But his rise was matched by a brutal and deadly fall, in which the Russian government would steal and destroy Browder’s company, and physically threaten its employees, culminating in the imprisonment, torture and death of Browder’s lawyer Sergei Magnitsky — the man for whom on account of Browder’s lobbying, the Magnitsky Act was named. Browder and a deceased Magnitsky would both be convicted...

Arthur Koestler (1905-1983)The following excerpt from American Betrayal appears today in slightly edited form at Breitbart News:In his contribution to the famous 1949 collection of essays by ex-Communists titled The God That Failed, Arthur Koestler carefully illustrates how set language binds thought to ideology at the expense of evidence. Koestler, author of the unparalleled novel of Stalin's show trials, Darkness at Noon, describes a conversation he had early in his Communist career with "Edgar," his Party contact, in which they discuss the front page of a Communist newspaper."But every word on the front page is contradicted by the facts," I...

King Minus ruled a prosperous and powerful nation, its economy was the envy of the world. Minus was proud of this, and he was proud to be the leader of such a fine kingdom. Then one night a red lizard appeared to him in a dream and it talked to him. “Oh sure, the kingdom is strong and rich. That is a fine thing indeed, but there are still a lot of poor people and can't you do something for them?” The king responded that red lizards appearing in dreams seemed a bit demonic and why should he listen to...

Recently we marked the 50th anniversary of the January 24, 1965 passing of Winston Churchill. Churchill was not only a courageous leader but an eminent historian and lucid writer who left us with volumes of valuable insight and wisdom. We have been flipping through his, “The Gathering Storm,” which recounts among other parts of history the lead up to World War II, when Churchill stood as a lone voice against Nazi Germany — a threat he so clearly saw while the world dithered. Below are 12 passages from Churchill’s Volume I of “The Gathering Storm,” that look awfully eerie in...

Dr. Bryon McClanahan reviews Pryor's work on Lee. He is quite critical and discusses major problems with the book as well as the "trendy" practice by modern historians of "humanizing" (tearing down) American heroes . . .

A national correspondent for “The Atlantic Magazine” who gained attention for an article calling on the United States to study possible reparations for slavery was in Iowa this week to speak at Grinnell College’s Martin Luther King Junior Day events. In an interview with Radio Iowa, Ta-Nehisi Coates says the idea of reparations for slavery is as old as the country itself. “Immediately after the Revolutionary War you had black people who had been enslave by the British making that argument that post-colonial, not really colonial government, reclaimed the property of British slave holders that African Americans who had been...

The January 26th edition of The New Yorker imagines a world where Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. marches arm in arm with some of the most polarizing news figures from 2014 and the #BlackLivesMatter movement. The publication is known for it’s controversial covers, but this one entitled “The Dream of Reconciliation” – shows Dr. King with Michael Brown, Eric Garner, Trayvon Martin, and New York City Police officer Wenjian Liu, who was killed by a gunman in December – peacefully walking with arms linked as an American flag waves in the background. Artist Barry Blitt who drew it says he...

The last several months have seen an outpouring of activism, with slogans coming in waves: “Justice for Mike Brown,” “Hands Up, Don’t Shoot,” and “I Can’t Breathe.” But the phrase “Black Lives Matter” has emerged to bind each flashpoint into one cause. The 2012 murder of Trayvon Martin and acquittal of George Zimmerman served as the first of these flashpoints, snowballing in August with the murder of Michael Brown. “Ferguson is the birthplace of what’s happening right now. In many ways, Ferguson is like ground zero of these protests,” says DeRay McKesson, who has been protesting and organizing in Ferguson...

How Education Has Empowered Me What is education? There are many who would say that an education is merely an entity that is to be possessed and others who say that it is only a means to move forward in the world, however I believe that education is a key, a key to freedom. Nelson Mandela once said "Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world", I truly agree with the wise words of Mr. Mandela and hope that one day I can use my education to do great things. When I was young...

The Black Brunch movement wants us to get uncomfortable with law enforcement violence in communities of color.Weekend brunch is usually the time for Americans to kick back and enjoy a mimosa and a slice of a savory veggie frittata (watch out for those spiking egg prices) with friends or family. But on Sunday, diners in several New York City and Oakland, California, restaurants got a hefty serving of anti–police violence activism alongside their meals. Dozens of participants in the grassroots Black Brunch movement walked into restaurants that tend to serve a predominantly white customer base. The activists weren’t there to...

One of the little-discussed details in the wake of the terrorist attack on the Paris offices of satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo centers on a book featured on the front cover of its current edition. The book, which has reportedly caused controversy in the days leading up to its publication over perceived "Islamophobia," imagines the future election of a Muslim leader of France, which heralds a broader Islamization of the EU. Its title is "Soumission" or "Submission" in English ("submission" being the literal definition of the Arabic word "Islam"), the newest work of celebrated and controversial French author Michel Houellebecq. "Soumission"...

The letters of Publicola, a fascinating window into the debate that occurred in the early days of the French Revolution, before significant blood had been shed in France, before the French people had beheaded their king and queen, before the Reign of Terror, before Napoleon was a name of any significance, and before all of Europe became engulfed in war, written anonymously by John Quincy Adams.

"Putin is behaving in a very paranoid way. He’s putting a lot of emphasis on increased repression. He’s taking a lot of money out of domestic coffers: health, education, pensions, to support his own inner circle – to keep peace among competing groups. To bail these people out when the social situation in the country is so dire is an act of….it reveals the regime for what it is, and he can only really keep peace by increasing the repression."

Michel Houellebecq, who first stirred controversy with sex novel Atomised, makes waves with book describing country after Islamist becomes president. Put France’s literary enfant terrible together with Europe’s most combustible political talking point, and sparks were always going to fly. Michel Houellebecq, whose tale of sex, mother-hatred and cloning Atomised was the French literary scandal of the Nineties, is turning his attention to “Islamisation”. His new novel Soumission (Submission), will not be published until January 7 but has already triggered a flurry of accusations that he is pandering to the growing Islamophobia gripping France. It is set in 2022 and...

In this landmark work of history, Arsonist reveals the secret role of one man who challenged the foundations of feudalism and instigated the American Revolution. James Otis was disgusted by the anti-democratic feudal structure of society and threatened to set it all “in a flame” though, he confessed, he too would likely be consumed in the fire. By the winter of 1760, this provincial bourgeoisie, one of the wealthiest and most intelligent men in the British colonies, had become fully radicalized. That his words – a promise and a prophecy – came to full fruition and his predictions about the...

To Dad--who knew how to keep Christmas well Candle wicks, like memories, flicker faintly at times, and burn brightly at others. Dickens could have been writing about my father, William Christian Stoos, when he said of Scrooge that he knew how to keep Christmas well. Dad was the Spirit of Christmas in our household. Each year he anticipated the holiday with a childlike glee. Although a stoic man, and deeply spiritual, he became a child at Christmas time—his favorite time of the year. Whether it was the gaudy Christmas tree with its 2,000 lights that warmed our cozy house, the...

"Patton's familial ties to Confederate veterans is quite fascinating (Chapter One is titled, "Ghosts of the Confederacy") and had a significant impact on his view of history, as well as his role it it. (An extremely important and influential factor, despite what some think.) Patton's great-grandmother once wrote, "I am crying because I have only seven sons left to fight the Yankees."

Six official clay seals found by an archaeological team at a small site in Israel offer evidence that supports the existence of biblical kings David and Solomon. Many modern scholars dismiss David and Solomon as mythological figures and believe no kingdom could have existed in the region at the time the Bible recounted their activities. The new finds provide evidence that some type of government activity was conducted there in that period.A Mississippi State University team found this bulla, or ancient clay seal, on a dig site in southern Israel last summer. It offers evidence of government activity in the...

And one day, too late, your principles, if you were ever sensible of them, all rush upon you. The burden of self-deception has grown too heavy, and some minor incident...collapses it all at once, and you see that everything, everything has changed and changed completely under your nose. The world you live in - your nation, your people - is not the world you were born in at all. The forms are all there, all untouched, all reassuring, the houses, the shops, the jobs, the holidays. But the spirit, which you never noticed because you made the lifelong mistake of...

The Golden Christmas Much to the annoyance of multiculturists, Christmas is still America’s most celebrated holiday, and in the weeks preceding this festive time, traditional Christmas stories will appear on television screens. We can expect to see numerous versions of Charles Dickens renowned tale, A Christmas Carol, O.Henry’s The Gift of the Magi, and Sherlock Holmes enthusiasts like myself look forward to adaptations of Conan Doyle’s The Adventure of the Blue Carbuncle. As much as I enjoy these holiday offerings, my Christmas season would not be complete without a reading of William Gilmore Simms’ novel The Golden Christmas. Simm’s sensitive...

From a wide-ranging interview with Blackwater founder and ex-CEO Erik Prince: "ISIS poses a near-term threat, but certainly the greatest threat long-term are crazies with a nuclear weapon in Iran…that is by far the most destabilizing possibility in the Middle East. …I think it’s highly concerning that the Obama administration is talking about making an Iranian nuclear deal that wouldn’t be subject to Senate approval — like any other treaty would be. We have a Constitution, we have a division of powers of the U.S. government — that is, beyond ISIS or beyond Iran — if we start destroying the...

Consistent with our analysis of last year’s list, the New York Times has again apparently excluded any conservative or even right-leaning titles from its “100 Notable Books” of 2014. A disclaimer: While “conservative” or “right-leaning” are obviously subjective terms, a cursory glance at the Times’ list indicates books that lack a focus on individual liberty, free enterprise, traditional values, or many of the other tenets of Western civilization — unless critical of such tenets; further, the list is bereft of any titles authored by conservative or right-leaning authors. To give you a sense as to the kind of narratives/themes echoed...

Free Audio: Download the Complete Chronicles of Narnia by C.S. Lewis Read by Dr. Chrissi Hart (British Accent) openculture.com/2011/12/the_chronicles_of_narnia_free.html Before the days of Harry Potter, generations of young readers let their imaginations take flight withÂ The Chronicles of Narnia, aÂ series of seven fantasy novels written by C. S. Lewis. Like his friend J.R.R. Tolkien, LewisÂ served on the English faculty at Oxford University and took part in theÂ Inklings, an Oxford literary group dedicated to fiction and fantasy. PublishedÂ between 1950 and 1956,Â The Chronicles of Narnia has sold overÂ 100 million copies in 47 languages, delighting younger and older readers worldwide. The seven volumes in...

Then yet a thousand times more thankful should our people be for this nation’s bounteous wealth, her strength and liberty “Thus out of small beginnings greater things have been produced by His hand. And as one small candle may light a thousand, so the light here kindled hath shone to many. Let the glorious name of Jehovah have all the praise.” (William Bradford, Governor of Plymouth County, 1621) Thankful they assembled there, A humble Pilgrim band, To praise their God in silent prayer That He should bless their land. Through winter unforgiving, Through pestilence and war, Those grateful few yet...

Happy Thanksgiving and Merry Christmas, Rush and Kathryn Limbaugh, for returning to America’s children, parents and grandparents the best gift of them all--pride in America’s noble history! Not since Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer has a figure from childlore done so much to lead the little people out of the fog. We look for Rudolph every Christmas, before packing him away with the ornaments til’ the next holiday season. But ‘Liberty’, the lovable, time-traveling horse of the ‘Rush Revere Adventures’ series is there every day. Liberty is not just the equine hero who makes going to bed a delight before lights...

All (good) things must come to an end, as the omnipotent, yet enigmatic, interstellar character Q pointed out to the crew of the USS Enterprise during a particularly harrowing flight. As in Gene Roddenberry-created science-fiction epics, so it is in the world of pop cultural podcasting, which is why this month marks the conclusion of my nearly year-long professional collaboration with my good friend Todd Seavey. Even though Todd is leaving for bigger-and hopefully more lucrative-endeavors, the Perry portion of Seavey and Perry on Culture will persist, as I cycle through a diverse cast of witty anarcho-capitalists willing to plumb...

Stonewalled in Obama’s Garden of Beasts Stonewalled: My Fight for Truth Against the Forces of Obstruction, Intimidation, and Harassment in Obama’s Washington, by Sharyl Atkisson, 2014In the Garden of Beasts: Love, Terror and an American Family in Hitler’s Berlin, by Eric Larson, 2011 “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.” ~~George Santayana “History doesn’t repeat itself, but it does rhyme.” ~~Attributed to Mark Twain, unverified “Goddammit, Sharyl! The Washington Post is reasonable, the L.A. Times is reasonable, the New York Times is reasonable, you’re the only one who’s not reasonable! So, Sharyl Atkisson is the only...

Molly Guptill Manning, with her collection of Armed Services Edition books, discovered that soldiers liked nostalgic books and those with sex scenes. Armed Services Editions created a new audience of readers back home. A decade after the Nazis’ 1933 book burnings, the U.S. War Department and the publishing industry did the opposite, printing 120 million miniature, lightweight paperbacks for U.S. troops to carry in their pockets across Europe, North Africa and the Pacific. The books were Armed Services Editions, printed by a coalition of publishers with funding from the government and shipped by the Army and Navy. The largest of...

If current worldwide demographic trends continue, whites are seriously an endangered race. A new baby boom of Hispanic, Asian and black children will make whites a minority in the USA by 2050. White birth rates in America are falling, while immigrants and minorities are having more children. The population surge does not derive directly from immigration, but rather from immigrants alreday in the USA having children. This is in the new book Diversity Explosion by Brookings Institution demographer William Frey. The book contains highly detailed charts and maps showing how falling white birth-rates and rising minority birth-rates will change...

By the time John Kennedy Toole won the Pulitzer Prize for his great American novel, A Confederacy of Dunces, he had been dead for 12 years. Toole reportedly killed himself in part due to years of frustration over unsuccessful attempts to get his outrageously funny book about New Orleans published. It was only after his mother browbeat author Walker Percy into taking up the cause that Louisiana State University Press published the book in 1980. The following year, it won the Pulitzer for fiction. It went from being considered a cult classic to a must-read: More than 1.5 million copies...

It’s hard to get too far into reading a newspaper these days without hearing about how nasty the political game has become. At first glance, it’s an easy assertion to buy into: between the government shutdown, Congress’ inability to pass any meaningful legislation, the vitriolic opposition to compromise coming from both sides of the aisle, etc., etc., things do seem to have changed. The media plays a role in selling the idea, too. Magazine covers and op-eds all trumpet the same message: America just doesn’t seem to work any more. Our collective memory is startlingly short. Anyone who has read...

The fiancée of Thomas Eric Duncan, the Liberian man who died of Ebola in Dallas, has landed a deal to publish a memoir. “I am writing this book to tell people about Eric, about our love story, about our family and about my faith that has been tested but not broken,” Louise Troh said in a statement released Thursday. “The love of my life and the father of my son came to America to marry me,” she added. “It was supposed to be the first happy day of a new life of joy for us all. But before we could...

"[If] the monetary authorities are intent on depreciating the currency, then I think that in the fullness of time they will succeed all too well. …The important thing about QE [quantitative easing] is this idea, this radical precedent is now on the books — the virus as it were is in the monetary bloodstream. ...all of this is…in the books as precedent, and the monetarists and Keynesians are rather preening about the evident success of these interventions, and we can be sure I think that they will not forebear to do more still next time. There will come a time...

Archaeology shows that these fierce women also smoked pot, got tattoos, killed—and loved—men. The Amazons got a bum rap in antiquity. They wore trousers. They smoked pot, covered their skin with tattoos, rode horses, and fought as hard as the guys. Legends sprang up like weeds. They cut off their breasts to fire their bows better! They mutilated or killed their boy children! Modern (mostly male) scholars continued the confabulations. The Amazons were hard-core feminists. Man haters. Delinquent mothers. Lesbians. Drawing on a wealth of textual, artistic, and archaeological evidence, Adrienne Mayor, author of The Amazons, dispels these myths and...

One of my favorite little moments in the very entertaining new “Star Trek” movie comes when the young James T. Kirk activates the computer system of a car he swiped for a joyride, and the Nokia logo comes up. It’s nice to see Nokia’s still in business in the twenty-third century. Such simple touches help to humanize the Star Trek universe, which had drifted a bit too far from recognizable human experience for audiences to fully engage with its characters. The presence of a good old-fashioned corporate logo in the new movie put me in mind of a long-ago, free-wheeling,...

The Times columnist suggests a government crackdown for selling conservative books too quickly. Big-government aficionado Paul Krugman is calling for “public action to curb the power” of an entity he can’t quite bring himself to call a monopoly, even as he nonetheless compares its “abuses” to those of John D. Rockefeller’s Standard Oil company. The subject of his ire? “Amazon.com, the giant online retailer, has too much power, and it uses that power in ways that hurt America,” Krugman whines. “Does Amazon really have robber-baron-type market power? When it comes to books, definitely,” Krugman insists. “Amazon overwhelmingly dominates online book...

It has been widely reported that Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, widow of President John F. Kennedy, shared with family members she was certain that Kennedy’s Vice President Lyndon Baines Johnson, arranged to have her husband murdered. Soon that conclusion will be heard in the late First Lady’s own words, because audio tapes, recorded of discussions with historian and close family associate, Arthur Schlesinger Jr., between March and June 1964, will be released and excerpts featured on an upcoming ABC News program in November marking the 50th anniversary of President John F. Kennedy’s assassination in Dallas.(VIDEO-AT-LINK) The tapes, which insiders describe as...

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Penelope Cruz is Esquire's "sexiest woman alive." Cruz is the 11th woman to be given the title by the magazine. Previous honorees include Angelina Jolie, Halle Berry, Rihanna, Charlize Theron and Scarlett Johansson.